


Quelch of Thy Flame: A Warhammer 40,000 tale [all rights reserved by Games Workshop]

by John_Steiner



Series: Warhammer 40,000 [1]
Category: Warhammer 40.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:13:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22746100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: An aging Inquisitor Throne Agent runs through an untamed bog of a poorly developed world on the fringes of the Imperium of Man, since split in two by the Great Rift. Knowing that the only salvation for this world was Exterminatus, the Throne Agent ventures on for any transmitter through which he can call for the Imperium Navy. However, he discovers what he is being pursued by and learns uncomfortable truths besieging the planet.
Series: Warhammer 40,000 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635502
Kudos: 1





	Quelch of Thy Flame: A Warhammer 40,000 tale [all rights reserved by Games Workshop]

In the grim-dark future of the 41st millennium the Imperium of Man is beset from all sides by xenos, mutants, Warp heretics, demons of the immaterium, and the gods of Chaos themselves. The galaxy is split in two, and the Golden Throne, housing the Emperor of Man's body for the last ten thousand years and is the light of warp navigation for all, is failing.

There is only war.

'They're behind me, this I know. Yet, the light of the God Emperor and the Imperium of Man lay before me, though I cannot see it. I must hold true in my faith, lest I surrender to the xeno enemy.'

Such were the thoughts of the Inquisitor Throne Agent as he tromped through wooded bog. More than twenty years ago the Throne Agent rose from the ranks of Inquisitor Acolytes to earn his own place as the eyes, ears, and hands of his Lord Inquisitor. His hair, mustache, and beard had become grey before that elevation in rank.

With there still being wild places told him how poorly developed this planet was, being so far from the core of the Imperium. Being on the other side of the Great Rift, the rift of chaotic energy splitting the galaxy in half, there was no hope of saving this world. The Throne Agent merely needed to get to a transmitter, perform the Rite of Activation, and let the Imperium Navy know they were to conduct "Exterminatus" on the world, lest xeno influence take hold.

A sudden stop of sound from his pursuers induced more alarm in the cloth and armor clad Throne Agent, who readied his bolter pistol without setting down the lamp. Looking left and right, he wondered from where the coming shot would originate, before the Throne Agent closed his eyes to concentrate.

One instant after the Throne Agent ducked down a blinding white flash and the accompanying hissing snap sounded where his head once had been. He turned to see a green-armored xeno helmet, its two suit cameras situated one over the other; both above the pulse rifle's advanced optical system of unholy alien technology.

The shooter was far outside the range of the Throne Agent's bolter, though he made a show of firing back one round. The xeno flinched, and then the Throne Agent kicked off the ground into a run. He counted off to three in his head before dropping again, this time into a puddle nearly submerging him. The lamp, while looking like something from an ancient age where mankind lived only on Holy Mother Terra, did not extinguish in the water.

The xeno pressed its four-fingered hand to the side of its helmet, from which the alien antenna rose, and seemed to nod. It was communicating with its commanders, the Throne Agent knew, and then the alien resumed its rifle aim, but without further discharges.

Raucous calls from another direction drew nearer; the Kroot. The xeno race known as the T'au talked much about their heretical "Greater Good" and godless Ethereal caste, but with the man-eating Kroot in the ranks of their xeno army any sensible and faithful servant of the God Emperor knew better. The Kroot were the most fierce jungle fighters in the galaxy, making even the barbarous Orks seem tame by comparison. For just a moment of weakness, the Throne Agent wondered how the T'au kept them under heel for any duration that was not in the heat of combat.

Heavier footfalls accompanied the Kroot carnivores, followed by a smashing of jungle branches that made the Throne Agent snap his attention their way. A Greater Gnarloc pounded toward him with all the power and pace of a tyrannosaur. Its massive beak was shaped into a broad and jagged-edged maw that, with T'au genetic engineering and cellular cybernetics, could cleave in half the body of an Astartes Space Marine and the power armor he was in.

That was if the Kroot Shaper standing atop it didn't first shoot its primitive canister rifle or under-mounted T'au photon grenade launcher at the target. To either side trudged gorilla-like Krootox also straddling Shapers.

Shapers were a strain of Kroot that knew how to direct other Kroot into eating the specific remains of felled enemies for their genes to incorporate into the gene matrix for the desired traits.

Such practices led to the molding of their own people into the beasts the Throne Agent saw advancing. With them followed more than a dozen Kroot hounds and scores of Kroot carnivore warriors; most wielding their primitive kinetic rifles, but some clung to the advanced ion pulse rifles of T'au make.

It was clear to the Throne Agent that the T'au sniper had called in support. There was nothing to do about it for the Throne Agent, save for his final act of faith to the Emperor of Mankind.

"The Emperor protects," spoke the Throne Agent as he raised his bolter pistol.

The Kroot warriors and hounds leapt at the Throne Agent from scores of meters away and pounded on him as he tried to aim the bolter at his own head, and wrestled it away in a confusing thrash of arms, legs, and beaks beyond counting. Thinking only darkness remained as the Kroot would tear his body asunder, the Throne Agent instead saw a parting that revealed the starry night sky. Also in view was the green helmet of T'au Pathfinders.

The T'au shooed back the Kroot and with great audacity, helped the Throne Agent to his feet. He went for the backup bolter on his right hip, but one T'au Pathfinder thrust the muzzle of his carbine into the Throne Agent while the other went for the gun. The tasing affect of the carbine jolted the Inquisitor Throne Agent, keeping him from stopping the disarming.

Next, the T'au clapped the Throne Agent's armored wrists with robotic restraints and began walking him in a prisoner march. The Throne Agent hadn't far to go, as the red-colored Devilfish troop carrier became visible, as if from thin air. Its shrouding field had bent light around it until the T'au were sure they had the Throne Agent in their custody and unarmed.

"In, Gue'la," sounded the helmet speaker of one T'au with its carbine waved toward the troop carrier hatch.

Refusing, the Throne Agent again felt the body-wracking power of the T'au carbines. The stunner technology was a feature unheard of for a species not previously known for close quarters prowess.

Always, it was said that even the weak-hearted Imperial Guard could take the best of T'au tens to one in close combat. Now, the Throne Agent wasn't so sure. However, that would not be the biggest revelation he would bare witness to.

"This is him?" spoke an unarmored blue-skinned T'au inside the carrier.

"Yes, Shas'O Farsight," one of the Pathfinders answered.

Even in the Imperium stories of the dauntless T'au leader were well known, despite the minor nuisance the T'au Empire were said to be. That this infamous xeno would allow itself to be unprotected by its battle suit this close to a servant of the Lord Inquisitor was unimaginable to the Throne Agent.

To make that clear, the Throne Agent tried to lunge at the xeno commander, only to again feel the zapping jolts of T'au carbines pressed against his armor. The Agent heard the troop carrier hatch close before he could see again through all the pain.

"The God Emperor is my shield," recited the Throne Agent, "And I, His mailed fist. I shall fear no xeno, heretic, or mutant."

"Now that prayer of yours is out of the way," spoke Commander Farsight, "We can discuss your current situation."

The Throne Agent tried to shut out the words of this xeno abomination, who somehow mastered the spoken word of mankind.

Yet, Farsight continued, "You understand that there is, at present, no Imperium Navy over this planet. The negotiation of their withdraw has concluded, with your Gue'la admirals seeing their position and survival prospects untenable opposite the T'au Air Caste."

"You utter lies, xeno," the Throne Agent spat, "No true servant of the God Emperor would hand over domain rightly ruled by Mankind."

"Perhaps you are right, Gue'la," Farsight replied, and waved his hand out to the side he looked toward. "Maybe your navy admirals betrayed this ill-defined emperor you claim governs your species from the beyond. That is not for me to judge, but that they have surrendered this system is an indisputable fact, leaving even the agent of an Inquisitor behind."

"I will not forsake my Glorious Emperor," the Throne Agent defiantly huffed, still laying on the troop carrier floor with T'au weapons in his face.

"You can worship whatever you wish," Farsight accepted, and then leaned forward to look down at the Throne Agent he addressed, "However, life as you knew it is behind you. It will take years, and possible decades, but you will embrace the T'au way."

"You Greater Good is heresy!" The Throne Agent seethed.

"Oh, that," Farsight seemed to recall, "Yes, well the thoughts and wishes of our Ethereal Caste is not my concern any longer. We don't invite you into the way of life the Ethereals would impose. Rather, I offer you a chance to save your kind from the menace your ancestors wrought upon the galaxy before the T'au ever took to the stars."

That made the Throne Agent laugh heartily. "You're deluded, xeno! Your precious Fourth Sphere of Expansion is but a gnat upon a mighty beast of war."

"Were we but one such creature you might have had a point," Farsight spoke with accent not distorting his mastery of human language. "Between the Orks, Chaos, Dark Eldar, the Tyranid menace, and rebellious worlds beyond my counting, a simple gnat- as you say, may well tilt the grandest of scales one way over the other."

"Your turn for Exterminatus will come," the Throne Agent boasted, "You just wait your turn, and you'll know the Righteous Fury of the God Emperor."

"You with that enthroned corpse again," Farsight dismissed, "Your people have sworn to his still living for twice as long as the history of my people. In all this time has his rotting husk so much as budged? The Gue'la are a species on their way down, and for reasons largely of their own making. Yet, we know of these demons from the Warp. I personally slew three of them without realizing what they were. Since then, the T'au battle doctrine for combating Chaos has only advanced."

"Lies," the Throne Agent hissed.

"This world was awash with the Orks menace," Farsight reminded, "Your navy, the Imperial Guard, even your vaunted Astartes couldn't stand against the green tide. You'll be surprised to learn that, despite centuries of Gue'la efforts resulting in total failure, we cleared them them of this planet in less than two years. There hasn't been a fungal spawned Ork from this world's soils since. Why else do you think we could bring you in at our leisure?"

He could feel it, cracks in his faith, as he mentally recited his prayers to the God Emperor. The Throne Agent recalled that in the depths of this jungle he saw no signs of Ork, Grots, or the lowest of Snotlings.

Weeping became the first outward expression of the Throne Agent's true surrender.


End file.
